Tracking cookies on travel sites
 

I am not sure if this is the place to discuss or if it is even of interest to any of you but
I have been having trouble with my computer(new HP)so I decided to go to www.adaware.com and download the filter program(free)
Everytime I go into Hyatt I get a tracking cookie 2o7.net :eek:
everytime I come into FT I get that triblefusion.net(I have known that for ages) :(
seems I am scanning for half of my life just getting rid of these damn things. :mad:

One had configured my toolbars differently and given me a new search bar! :td:

I am sure most of you are far more educated in computers that I, but thought Id make those that are a bit computer illiterate aware.

Happy new year to you all. :)

Although there are several forums that have a portion of the subject you're concerned about, I'll move it to Travel Technology frequented by many familiar with internet tracking and adware. Ocn Vw 1K, Co-Moderator.

I still don't understand peoples fear of cookies, they have been around for years and are pretty innocent. It wasn't till spyware scanners became more popular that they started "warning" people of cookies.

Cookies are harmless, all they do is place something on your PC so that the site you visited can remember you when you come by next time.

For banners it's a way of making sure you don't get the same banner over and over again.

They really are not a means of tracking everything you do, in the case of the Hyatt they are probably just there to make sure that they give you new promo's each time you login, and that it remembers your login name.

A common misconception of cookies is that other sites can read the contents of what a different site placed on your PC, thus tracking your movements; this is incorrect, only the site that initially sent you the cookie can access the contents of the cookie it left for you.

Really, there is nothing wrong with cookies, they are innocent and are actually a great way of helping your browsing experience.

While it is currently unlikely that cookies will harm your computer, they can be and are used by companies for "data mining." If you are concerned about privacy, you have a perfectly valid reason to be concerned about cookies.

I recommend you take a look at Firefox (or one of the other Mozilla browsers). In the options, you'll find a section called "privacy". In privacy, you can define certain default behaviour (such as no third-party cookies -- usually the most intrusive in terms of privacy) and whether cookies should expire when you quit Firefox, never expire or ask you for each cookie. This last is the option I have chosen. There are a significant number of data mining companies on the Internet (doubleclick, fastclick, etc.) and it is easy enough to see when one of these attempts to pass you a cookie. You simply deny once and you will never be bothered by company again.

ScottC:

I understand. Now my question: Can site A see what other cookies are placed (from site B, C...Z) on my PC?
Example: Can OfficeMax.com see that I connected already to OfficeDepot.com? Delta.com can see the Travelocity.com cookie? And so on..

Well Travelocity won't even load now unless you set IE to accept all cookies, period. Only time I go there is to check Fare Listings, so I just turn off Privacy, hit that page, turn it back on, close IE, and re-start my browser.

But I must say I am not impressed. I don't mind a company dropping their own cookies, and I'll even handle some registered third-party ones (for ad tracking). But I'm not about to run my system letting anyone and everyone drop cookies wherever they want.

Travelocity will have to change that back, people, like me, won't want to be bothered having to jump through all those hoops every time I visit the site.

I agree that cookies are harmless for the most part, other then they clutter up the system, but Travelocity will soon find out that many people think that all cookies are bad (I don't even remember half the passwords that cookies keep for me for some sites from many years ago) and have to change the way they are doing things.

Not sure if they are trying to get people to switch to firefox (which opens it without any problems) or what's going on, but I can't believe they made this change and didn't think it all the way through.

I'm not sure this is true. I use Ad-Subtract to filter stuff in IE and I have Travelocity set to block cookies and Java applets. I allow pop-up windows, but I can't remember why. Might be for the calendar functions. Travelocity works fine for me, I use it all the time to investigate travel options before I hit my employer's mandated Amex booking site. I have yet to find cookies that Travelocity drops for itself of 3rd parties.

Edited for grammer

Nope. that is not possible. Your browser only lets the placing site see the cookies it left.

You're right -- that's how cookies were originally designed to function. However, the issue becomes when sites A, B, and C have embedded content (e.g. an image) that comes from server D (e.g. doubleclick.net). Site A cannot directly set a cookie for site B or C to read, but there is nothing stopping site D from sharing the info collected on sites A, B, or C...

From this website you can opt of several of the major ad-tracking/cookie companies (Doubleclick, etc.)

http://www.networkadvertising.org/

Cookies are pretty harmless.

If you think your computer is running slow because of some bad software - that would be "spyware" - not cookies.

Get SpyBot and it will kill them:
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

..............

Yeah, that Travelocity thing is a PITA, but if you just bookmark an inside page, you can still get there.

I definitely have been staying away from it more lately though, half on insinct and half on prinicple. If they're going to make it harder, why should I jump through hoops?